Building Better Client Engagement

Building Your Practice One Deck At A Time

It’s one of the biggest barriers to growing a business, organization, team or department. We want to keep much of what we know, our expertise, close to the vest.

But failure to share means failure to expand and move beyond what exists right now into what could be.

Innovation and growth are the fruits of sharing what we know with others so that we can affect more people in more places.

You might be wondering why I’m bringing up this topic of fear.

It’s because I see the fear in the reluctance of facilitators, coaches, consultants, organizations, etc. to leave the deck behind.

VisualsSpeak tools are strategically designed to be left behind. Whether you facilitate a group of 1 or 20 using individual decks for each participant, the deck is designed to be left with the participant. And yet this practice rarely happens.

Busting the Myths

One reason is fear and it’s a big one. You might be thinking a couple of different things like:

If I leave the deck behind they won’t need me anymore.

If I leave the deck behind they will know my secrets.

If I leave the deck behind I’ll be spending more money replacing them.

These few thoughts give you some insight into the fear we might feel about leaving part of our work behind.

But these are all myths.

A VisualsSpeak tool or deck is meaningless without you. You know what to do and how to use the tools to elicit responses from the people using them. On their own, users can certainly use the deck but it will not have the same impact or results in most cases because they are not trained like you are.

Your secrets are in your training, knowledge and experience. Your secrets lie in the special abilities you bring to the sessions you facilitate. Those can’t be replicated without you.

And finally, yes, you’ll have to buy more decks but the cost should always be written into the session prices you set, so the cost ultimately comes out of the client’s pocket and not yours.

Five Big Reasons to Leave the Deck Behind

So we’ve busted some of the myths surrounding leaving image decks behind with clients but what’s more important than that is why you should leave the deck behind.

There’s profit in those image decks!

Here’s why…

1. Marketing, plain and simple. Every time an image desk surfaces after you’ve left, the users are reminded of their session with you. A deck left behind becomes a constant reminder of the benefits received when you brought the tool to the client. The power of using the image tools is that they create lasting memories for participants; that means they remember you.

2. The image decks you leave behind serve as your business card because they become great reminders of you and the work you’ve done with your clients. Always make sure that you leave a business card in the box with the deck or affix it to the outside of the box. Make sure when they pull that deck out they are reminded of you.

3. As you know, VisualsSpeak tools are creative and fun. Because clients enjoy and benefit from your use of the image decks, there will be a desire of clients to find more ways to use them. When you leave a deck behind and clients start to use them, questions will surface. That’s where you come in. Make yourself available to answer questions, suggest uses and schedule new sessions. Leaving the deck behind creates a reason for the client to call you, rather than you chasing the client.

4. But image decks cost money! Yes, and those costs should always be factored into your proposals and client costs. In the event that your cost for a deck isn’t covered, remember this, the cost of an image deck is much cheaper than an entire marketing and advertising campaign which may or may not garner one new customer.

5. Use the VisualsSpeak image decks as your own personal marketing and advertising campaign. It is much cheaper over time to keep existing customers in the loop than it is to chase down new ones. If you are working with the same clients over and over then you make the investment in leaving a deck behind only once. From a business building marketing perspective, it’s a no brainer.

Build Your Business and Client-base

Remember, it’s easier to keep existing customers coming back for more than to pay the advertising costs required acquiring a new customer.

So the next time you use the VisualsSpeak tools consider them your calling card to better and longer-lasting client engagement and leave the deck behind.